How open are you with your BJD as a hobby?

Hmmm I mean if you come in my room, you’ll know lol and I warn people before they come in usually, but all my family and friends know, I’m open about my collecting bjds as well as other dolls. However, with strangers, people I just meet, I wait a while before I tell them, if at all lmao I just don’t always like all the questions to follow.

 

I'm open to an extent (since I'm still pretty new to the whole thing), but I imagine that eventually I'll be fully open about it with my friends/people I know in real life. Right now most of my family knows about it (my mother will even take some of my doll pictures and send them to our family members...) but I've surprisingly just hadn't had the ability to tell my friends about it...I'm sure they'd be completely supportive of it though! Hopefully in the future I hope to be a little more open about since my dolls are things I care a great deal about.

 

I consider myself pretty open about the hobby. Several of my friends know about it in detail (I've even gotten two of them into the hobby), several family members know about it in detail, I have talked about collecting dolls briefly to a few coworkers, I have an instagram profile specifically for dolls that I have a link to in my main instagram profile, and I belong to a couple groups on social media in general. I haven't ever gotten negative responses, though I'm always nervous I will haha.

Editing to add that I have added that I "collect fully-customizable resin art dolls" to my dating profile and it's gone over surprisingly well so far

 

I used to be sort of quiet about it. I wasn’t so much embarrassed, as I was tired of getting rude comments about it. I got my first doll in high school. I posted about him online and mentioned him to a couple people because I was proud of myself for saving my allowance and Christmas/birthday money long enough to get him. A lot of people noticed and made comments about it being childish and weird, so it kinda just became a thing only close friends (and family) knew about.
Recently, though, I started putting him on public social media accounts more and sharing photos of him. I love showing him off because he’s beautiful, and I’m so happy with him. Now that I’m 20, I get a few more comments here and there, but otherwise most people have just accepted it as something I love. As I get more dolls, I will definitely be very open about it.

 

It's basically one of the first things people learn about me when they meet me. There was a time, when I'd only tell the people closest to me or my dorm roommates. Now that I'm an adult with an adult lifestyle (I live on my own and don't need to be bothered by some weird people in my own house) I don't care anymore to keep up the appearances.

I'm also a teacher and my kids follow my instagram which is mainly bjd-related. I have a couple hundred kids under my supervision and I'm happy they know this side of me, so they know me as that weird thing that has this less serious side to herself. The vast majority of the like me, so I feel secure enough to show them.

 

Not particularly open, I have different social media for my doll accounts and my personal account, but I don’t keep it real hidden, my house is full of dolls and they are out in the open and most of my family, friends and colleagues know, but I wont be actively showing them doll pictures or anything. My family thinks it is kinda weird but are very accepting that I like dolls and need them.

 

So far quite hidden. I have shared it with my colleagues, closest real life friend and an online friend who also likes dolls. It's not like I'm actively trying to hide my hobby, and anyone who came to my home would see my cabinet of dolls immediately, but it doesn't naturally come up in conversation. My existing friends don't randomly ask if I've picked up a new hobby and I don't really want to be told that something I enjoy is weird or creepy (which seems to be the most common reaction to dolls). I haven't shared photos on Facebook because I don't think many people would be interested.

Most of my social interaction over dolls has been via Instagram, because I treat it as a public platform (whereas Facebook I keep for friends). I think I will open a second account to share doll photos, though, because currently I only use my account for travel pics and it would be an odd combination.

 

I kind of do it the same way. I don’t try to actively hide it but I don’t flaunt it either. Doll collecting and customizing can have very strange reactions. Especially when you are like me a single 40 something who also owns cats

 

It's not something I start talking about with strangers outside the hobby, unless they ask I will briefly explain my hobby. If they want further explanation, or show keen interest, then I'm all for showing pictures and go into more detail about this wonderfully creative hobby.
So keeping it to myself unless..

 

I don't flaunt it but I am pretty open about all my hobbies and BJDs are no exception. Most of my friends, family, co-workers (former and current alike, even top people in my current company know), teachers, classmates and even my students know about my dolls and no one has ever had a single negative thing to say about them.
I don't see a point in trying to hide something you love simply because someone else might make fun of you for it/disapprove, I also don't understand the people that insist that you cannot have *insert hobby here* because *insert random reason(s) here*, it's not their life so as long as you aren't hurting anyone you do you.

 

I don't think I'm too much open about my BJDs hobby. Almost all of friends and family members don't know that I'm playing BJDs. Only one or two of my childrens has their face shown online, the others are still under the vein.
I don't know the reason exactly, but I feel safe when keeping this hobby as a secret for myself, as if this is a world with me and my children only.
However, when it's anonymous, I think I love to shared and be shared about the world of BJDs, tips for buying and caring, information of good face-up artist and makers, so on... (That why I decided to join DoA)

 

I'd say I was Pretty open about it, most of my friends / family know and if someone asked me about my interests or hobbies I'd tell them about it.
I dont share about it on my personal social media though I have a dedicated instagram for that

 

I decided not to hide my enthusiasm about my hobby and started an instagram account to share pictures. I've also bought a pattern to make first doll outfit, although I need to wait to buy fabric and borrow a sewing machine. Told my mother about this project with some excitement (it's been a while since I did anything creative just for myself) and she paused before saying incredulously, "Doll clothes?!" I thought she might 'get' the clothing projects more than the dolls as she enjoys sewing herself, but oh well.

 

I'm pretty secretive about it; apart from any online presence, only my boyfriend and other BJD-collecting friends know about it. I live with my parents and not even they know!

 

Pretty open, i like to share the creative side of things. But of course inevitably the 'price' discussion comes up and I always feel the lump in my throat haha. So I try to gauge the type of person they are before I let them know, just in case they're about to judge me hardcore for spending big money on 'dolls'.

 

Strangely enough I’m not that open with it to my family as much as I am with my friends since they’re able to relate to being dedicated to hobbies of their own that require a lot of money and commitment (one of them is a massive enamel pin collector). I always show photos from instagram of my favorite doll owners and rave about releases of my favorite sculpts to them with no hesitation and they don’t give me judgment for it lol

 

I feel this on a spiritual level

 

im very 50/50 i tend to bring my dolls with me as support on serious outings so most people who know me know about the dolls and im always open to questions but i seem to be more closeted about when it comes to meeting new people i usually dont tend to mention it for a long while and when i do i try to find ways to make it seem less "creepy" for them like a lot of times it usually comes into play cus i say im working on commissions they ask of what and i say face ups and thats how it starts and i try to make the excuse of "it's how i make money" and such and that tends to soften the blow for some reason

 

I'll admit that I'm hyper-sensitive about feelings of being judged in general, so I'm not very open about my interest in this hobby. My family is aware of it, if they remember when I got my first doll, that is. My mother is still a little bit freaked out by them, but she's still interested and wants to help make things for them, which I appreciate! My closest friend collects other types of dolls and so we chat about them often and share new stuff we've seen, made, or gotten. Other than that, I've told... maybe three people? I think one was just in passing and went largely without comment. The other two are big into Japanese pop culture, so I thought it'd be more understood. The guy friend thought it was neat, and it turns out he'd been to Volks when visiting Japan, but the female friend balked at the idea of layaway payments on just a doll and I haven't brought it up it since.

I intend to knit for my new girl, so I might mention that I'm making doll clothes to my knitting group, but we'll see.

It's largely a mix of my anxiety, awareness that many people find dolls to be creepy or uncanny valley territory, and desire not to appear as a stereotypically strange and obsessive collector (with my exorbitant amassing of 2 whole dolls, haha).

 

Im pretty open about it, both my parents collected antique toys and dolls and always them on display, and i do the same. I have shelves in the main room for my bjds and my off topic dolls. So if you come to my house youll see them. I dont think my inlaws know about them, But thats a different story.( MIL wont come to my house cuz we have pets and she doesn't approve of animals in the house or god forbid on the furniture). But they would not understand anyway, so it doesnt come up.